Hello All, It's great seeing spring blooming in Chico! Love, Tink

April Showers

The way this weather is going, we should be seeing lots of pilgrims soon...

The arugula is doing well. This was it at the beginning of April, and it's fully grown now. I've started some more down the same onion row.

The trees are showing lots of good new growth.

It's still frequently cloudy, even rainy, but the trees are really leafing out. It looks like a glen again!

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Hi Katinka! Sorry for so few posts lately!
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There are tons of cherries, which the birds will probably get most of...

And oodles of plums also.

The lilacs look beautiful on a sunny day.

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Weather Note
April is often fickle and this year is no exception. It's sunny, then cloudy, then raining, then windy, then sunny, then... and that's just one hour! We're now getting some highs in the 70s, but it's still chilly at night.
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By mid April, the dogwood has fully bloomed. It's so lovely!

So what have we actually been doing this month? You mean besides drinking beer??? Well... we started working on the pizza oven. Here is the plot laid out where the slab will go. Notice the slick porch made of recycled pallets.

When you need destruction, who ya gonna call? Dirtbusters! Here Billy hams it up with the pickaxe.

Then we dug up some dirt. The dirt is going in the compost pile. I cleaned out the whole winter's worth of chicken manure, and we layered it with the grass clippings and leaves that we stored from last fall. We should have hot, nutritious compost soon.

Rick helped set up the greenhouse table. He bungie-corded the frame down, and it's covered with a greenhouse tarp, with plastic on the ends. On the bottom, over the slats, we laid those plastic floor mats used under office chairs. That keeps it warmer and helps direct any water runoff. It gets nice and warm in the greenhouse, and everything is at a good working height. Rick even moved the leg brace so we can store things underneath. Best of all, the red grid stuff exactly fits the beer cups I use as 4-inch pots.

And for a fun project, we started painting some wood scraps to make cutesy garden signs.

Happy April 20! Happy Earth Day!

Spring, Glorious Spring!

Finally finally finally! It's really springtime! It stayed cold and rainy right to the bitter end of March. The last big storm tore off the roof of the chicken pen, but we already had a replacement, so we got it put right back up.

In fact, Billy's birthday weekend, we called off the croquet game and gathered over here because it was so cold and nasty out. But then, about an hour into the gathering, the sun came out and we immediately went outside.

The usual suspects...

We got Billy a Sierra Nevada growler for his birthday.

And that was pretty much the end of the rainy weather... for now. Ricky C brought over some seed potatoes. He planted a bunch in his yard, and we got what was left.

Tater tots....

We started eating the first radishes.

Tuesday, I bought a new car. It's pretty sexy. Not a convertable, but it does have a moon roof.

Then by yesterday, it was hot! We're having one of those classic Chico springs where it's too wet to work until it's too hot to work. Proof: 92 degrees (well, with the sun shining on it).

Because the trees are just starting to leaf out, the sun was unshaded. So Catherine got creative and brought over a couple of unbrellas.

We tried to position the second table to maximize our shade. And, we could do that because Buddy and I finished mulching another section.

Bloom Times: March/April

I'd like to do a better job of keeping track of when things bloom, leaf out, and ripen. So here's a snapshot for mid-March to early April.

Finished blooming:

Apricot: Finished blooming, leafing out

Daffodils: Totally done.

Daphne: Totally done
Forsythia: Almost done blooming, leafing out.
Plums: Finished blooming, leafing out.

In bloom:
Cherry: Full bloom, leafing out.
Hyacinth: Blooming.

Iris: Blooming.
Lilac: Full bloom,

Violets: Full bloom.
My apple tree (at home): Just starting to bloom.


Leafing out
Grapes: Just starting to leaf out.
Peach: Leafing out.

Rose of Sharon: Just starting to leaf out.

Sycamore: Just starting to leaf out.

Misc.
Broccoli/Cabbage: Past harvest time and flowering.
Peas: 3-4 inches tall.
Grass: Reseeded areas coming up strongly now.
Summer starts: Strong, but still at baby leaf stage, with just a few main leaves beginning to show.